Why Paleo Diet is the key to a healthy lifestyle
Scientists attribute certain health conditions such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes to modern eating and sedentary lifestyles. In particular, popular food choices contain a lot of fat, sugar, and other elements that increase health risks. A paleo diet plan proposes cutting modern food from the diet and returning to how our ancestors ate. And this is why paleo lifestyle might be a good choice for you too.
What is Paleo Diet?
The Paleo diet is also known as the Stone Age diet, caveman diet, hunter-gatherer diet, or Paleolithic diet. It is an eating plan focusing on the foods humans ate during the Paleolithic era (between 25 million and 10,000 years ago). This is why paleo diet brings forward foods with high nutritional value.
A modern paleo plan comprises fruits, seeds, nuts, vegetables, fish, lean meats, and eggs. These are the foods that people got by hunting and gathering. They are all-natural foods and do not include the foods that became common when humans started small-scale farming around 10,000 years ago. This is why paleo diet doesn’t include grains, dairy products, and legumes.
Benefits of the Paleo Diet
Switching to a paleo diet has a lot of health benefits. Many individuals report improved energy levels, weight loss, and clearer skin. Here are just some significant benefits:
- It eliminates processed foods, which have been linked to chronic diseases like obesity and heart disease.
- It can lead to weight loss and improved blood sugar control.
- It may reduce inflammation in the body, leading to potential benefits for conditions like arthritis and asthma.
- It encourages a balanced approach to eating, promoting satiety and satisfaction while avoiding restrictive calorie counting or extreme restriction of certain food groups.
- It emphasizes whole, unprocessed foods and prioritizes nutrient density over calorie counting.
Overall, following a paleo lifestyle can lead to improved overall health and well-being. However, it’s always best to consult a healthcare professional if you want to change your eating habits. They can help tailor a plan that meets your individual needs and health goals.
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Is eating Paleo right for you?
Paleo is simply high in fiber, antioxidants, and potassium while limiting simple carbohydrates, sugar, and sodium. You may choose to eat paleo to lose weight in the short term or maintain a healthy weight. It is also helpful for people who want to reduce the risk of heart and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, since the paleo diet is rich in vegetables and fruits, it helps achieve most nutrient requirements. This makes it a great choice to kick-start a weight loss journey and improve blood sugar and lipid profiles.
Despite the paleo eating allowing people to achieve a healthier diet and reduce the risk of heart disease, it is not for everyone. Most people often find it challenging to stay committed to such a restrictive diet. Before starting your journey with a paleo eating plan, make sure you work with your physicians or registered dietitian to establish if you are fit for the diet. Talking to a paleo diet expert will help you determine whether this eating plan will be more beneficial to your health. Due to the high intake of saturated fats from animal food sources, this diet could increase cholesterol. It also increases the risk of vitamin D and calcium deficiencies, which are critical in bone health.
Scientific evidence on how Paleo works
From a scientific point of view, the paleo diet can improve health by eliminating processed and high-fat foods with too many calories and little nutritional value. Instead, the eating plan emphasizes loading vegetables and fruits that are busting with healthy minerals, vitamins, and fiber. These fill you up faster to reduce the amount of food you eat and help curb weight gain.
Why paleo diet will make you lose weight? The main reason is restricting the entire food group lowers your calorie intake. At the same time, you will be burning more calories than you consume. Although studies on the paleo diet are limited, the benefits are evident. A study examining the benefits of self-reported, long-term patterns in adults found that the paleo diet resulted in a lower risk of heart and cardiovascular diseases. The risk reduction was attributed to avoiding foods rich in sugar or highly processed, such as candy and chips, and focusing more on fruits and vegetables instead.
How to get started with a Paleo Diet
Recommendations for the paleo diet usually vary in the literature. However, the basic principle is to eat more naturally occurring foods and avoid foods that emerged from farming. The foods in a paleo plan include fruits, eggs, nuts and seeds, vegetables, lean meats, oils from fruits and nuts, and fish. On the other hand, foods to avoid include grains, legumes, dairy products, added salt, refined and added sugar, starchy vegetables, and highly processed foods.
A typical meal plan will include breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack. For breakfast, you can have broiled salmon and cantaloupe. Lunch may consist of salad made with carrot, roman, tomatoes, cucumber, walnuts, avocados, and lemon juice dressings. Then dinner will include lean beef sirloin tip road, tomatoes, steamed broccoli, avocado, almonds, lemon juice dressing, a salad mixed with greens, and strawberry for dessert. On the other hand, snacks will have oranges, celery sticks, or carrot sticks.
Ready to join Paleo lifestyle?
A paleo diet helps lose weight and keep a healthy diet, but it can lead to potential risks. Proper use of this diet makes it a starting point for a healthy eating plan. Talking to your physician or dietitian will help determine the best way you can benefit from the paleo diet. If you want to learn more about the paleo diet, sign up for our newsletter and check out the free recipes in our blog.